With Your Permission, May I Please Just Be?

As I began to exist within the spaces that extended themselves as safe havens for these individuals, I was given the opportunity to experience the utter beauty that is the Black man. Contrary to the narrative often pushed within our society’s cultural framework, these men are soft and sweet.

These men are fragile and ethereal.

Through this body of work, I wish to afford Black men the opportunity to experience the same light that is so effortlessly shed upon other groups. These men deserve a chance for their demeanor to be properly acknowledged, and for their physical being to be associated with peace rather than harm. They deserve for their emotions to be considered as expansive and vast as the ocean itself.

Employing the ambiguity of the subject’s surroundings as a tool to direct the viewer’s attention onto the Black man himself, I attempt to coax observers into removing their preconceived biases.

I encourage them to focus solely on the beauty presented before them.